Of Men and Lawyers

Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment and learn again to exercise his will — his personal responsibility.”–Albert Schweitzer,German philosopher, musician, theologian and physician

I recently read a story that Mike Rowe described between himself and some lawyers about posting the picture of a shop lifter. The convenience store owner was continually plagued by shop lifters even with his camera going catching them in the act. He started posting pictures of the shop lifters and the amount of theft slowed down dramatically. But that’s not the problem. The problem was the two lawyers who were in the store at the same time and told the store owner that what he was doing could get him sued by the shoplifters because it, and I quote

“I could argue that the man in that photo – were he my client – suffered irreparable harm to his reputation and public standing. I’d argue that Frank here was the proximate cause of that damage. Moreover, the level of potential harm caused by this photo goes far beyond the punishment typically handed down for this kind of petty crime.”

Mike went on to ask them about what if he put the photo of the shop liter on facebook?

So if I post this image on my Facebook page, and the guy in the photo comes to you and says I’ve ruined his reputation by telling the world he’s guilty of shoplifting, you’d sue me? Even if the guy is proven guilty on tape?”

“Suing celebrities is fun,” said the lawyer. They usually settle, just to avoid the headache. But just to be clear – I’d sue Frank here as well.”

You see the problem here, aside from the fact that the lawyers are enablers on the weak, is that we’ve lost all respect for each other, we’ve lost our own self respect and there is obviously no honor here. There once was a time when public shame was all it took. But now, public shame will hurt their puny little feelings. Oh cry me a freaking river. Own up to your responsibility in life folks.